The Azorean Press in the Nineteenth Century (3)

By the end of the nineteenth century, the Azorean press reflected a growing autonomist current, particularly from 1893 onward, with the founding in Ponta Delgada—by Dr. Gil Mont’Alverne de Sequeira—of the newspaper Autonomia dos Açores, whose very motto announced its purpose: “The Free Administration of the Azores by Azoreans.” This development may be seen as a continuation of A Descentralização, published in Angra do Heroísmo and Ponta Delgada in the late 1880s.

What followed was a small but telling constellation of titles aligned with this outlook: in 1894, O Clamor Popular appeared in the town of Povoação, presenting itself as a “progressive–autonomist sheet,” and in 1898 O Autonómico was founded in Vila Franca do Campo. Meanwhile, in Ponta Delgada, A Persuasão had already, since 1896, declared itself a “defender of the decentralizing idea that produced the administrative regime known as Autonomic.” Earlier still, and more strikingly, O Atlântico, published in the city of Horta in 1872, went so far as to advocate the separation of the Azores.

Other newspapers pursued different aims. In Angra do Heroísmo, the Chrónica dos Açores was intended to report on the operations of the Liberating Army, while in Ponta Delgada the Gazeta do Povo was published “in support of asylums for mendicancy and destitute children.” On São Miguel, single-issue publications also appeared, such as Alhambra, produced “in favor of the victims of the Andalusian earthquakes,” and S. Miguel (Ilha) ao Porto, whose sales proceeds were donated to survivors of the Teatro Baquet tragedy.

Some publications offered particularly curious stories. In Ponta Delgada there appeared O Óculo, which announced itself as being “printed by the minor children of the editor of Ecco Michaelense.” The press later noted that its publication “was suspended for lack of qualification,” adding with disarming candor: “This was merely a kind of prank by almost illiterate children. It had a limited print run. Existing copies are rare.” In Ribeira Grande, the launch of the newspaper O Norte was preceded by a promotional leaflet dedicated to “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Mother of God, Leo XIII, and the Illustrious Prince of the Azorean Church.”

Creativity was also evident in the Diário de Notícias Ilustrado, founded in Ponta Delgada in 1880. It billed itself as “the first newspaper lithographed on a steam-powered machine” and “the first newspaper from São Miguel to be hawked and sold in the streets—an innovation that, incidentally, did not bring success.”

Many newspapers came to an end for the most varied reasons. In Santa Cruz da Graciosa, O Futuro ceased publication “because the owner moved his residence to Faial.” In Ponta Delgada, Ecco Michaelense ended “because the printing press was sold to Angra,” O Patriota because its editor, a surgeon, “had to leave São Miguel,” and A Opinião Pública “due to the transfer of some editors to other units, as a consequence of the violence of their writings.” In Angra do Heroísmo, O Observador, affiliated with the Cartist Party, ended “because permission was denied for any private newspaper to continue printing at the Government Press.”

Censorship also made itself felt in the Azorean press, and some newspapers were shut down for more serious reasons. O Cosmopolita, of Ponta Delgada, ended in 1875 “as a consequence of the lawsuit brought against it by the public prosecutor for abuse of press freedom.” O Mariense, from Vila do Porto, suspended publication in 1885 “as a result of a judicial sentence for abuse of press freedom and the editor’s (Jacintho Monteiro de Bettencourt) refusal to publish that sentence.”

Alongside political, cultural, and religious newspapers, nineteenth-century Azores also saw a profusion of humorous publications. Among them, in their own words, were O Apepinador, a “humorous and burlesque newspaper written with duck feathers”; O Chicote, which “has no fixed editors, nor any politics at all—it is written in hell”; Lusbel, a “diabolical, infernal, critical, tragic, comic, burlesque, microscopic, and inexorable sheet”; and Balão, a “critical, burlesque newspaper dedicated to the mysteries of science for the regeneration of the ignorant and meddlesome.”

The Azorean press of the period also included titles as curious as O Arco da Velha, A Aurora d’Além Túmulo, Calva à Mostra, O Cri-Cri, O Espirro, A Faísca, O Ódio, Pist!, O?, Sal e Pimenta, Sua Excelência, O Tio Braz, Zangão, Zé-Braz, and Zé Careca.

Overall, the Azorean press of the nineteenth century was characterized above all by the existence of countless ephemeral publications with small print runs, with one notable exception: the weekly O Imparcial, published in Angra do Heroísmo in 1883, which averaged three thousand copies per issue.

(To be continued )

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José Andrade is the Regional Director for Communities, Government of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. This article is based on the lecture “Toward a History of the Azorean Press,” delivered at the Public Library of Angra do Heroísmo, July 3, 2025.